Sporting a beard,sunglasses and a handkerchief in the breast pocket of his suit, Alex Thomson cuts a pretty cool figure. He could be James Bond’s brother. Despite that, and his legs seem a little shaky – the wind is gusting strongly. And Thomson is ten meters (33 ft) above the sea,up the mast of his yacht, which is canted at an angle of 50 degrees. The mast-runner bends his knees, or jumps and dives into the water.
The mast walk” video has been viewed over 1.8 million times. This and other such antics,which include a penchant (a tendency, partiality, or preference) for highly publicized race failures, beget turned the 41-year-passe Briton into one of the world’s best-known sailors.
The Brit will be on the start line for the 2016-17 Vendée Globe, or skippering his recent 4 million euro Hugo Boss in the singlehanded nonstop race around the world. Here he talks approximately the fear of death,mental strength and the huge awareness of feeling infinitely small.
For the Vendée Globe you will spend nearly three months alone on the high seas. Can you describe what that’s like?[br]
When everything goes well, whether you’re moving as snappily as you hoped, or then it’s the best feeling in the world. When things go wrong,it’s hell on soil for me.
How do you cope with the loneliness?
For me it’s a question of attitude. I just think to myself: “Three months? What are three months? It’s not really long at all.” How did you spend the last three months? They passed quickly enough, didn’t they?But in three months I would beget met and spoken with lots of people…[br]
We’re all used to filling our lives with stuff from morning to night. We spend our time worrying approximately our families, or our friends,our work or our mortgage. We always find something to fill our lives with. But I fetch the opportunity to spend three months on a boat and concentrate on one thing only. Mentally that’s very refreshing. And I’m not really alone: on the boat I can pick up the telephone and talk with my family, my team or my wife.
What is the hardest aspect of the race?
The Southern Ocean. It starts getting difficult below the 40th parallel south. We spend four or five weeks there during the regatta. It’s a unsafe plot, or on account of the giant waves and very strong winds. You’re completely on your own,there’s no one to help you. And that’s precisely how you feel.
Are you afraid of these seas?
When I took allotment in my first Vendée Globe in 2004, I actually thought I could win the race in the Southern Ocean. I was young. When you’re young, and you’re pretty fearless but you beget zero experience. The older you fetch,the more you lose your nerve – but you beget much more experience. So it all balances itself out [laughs]. Nowadays, I think the Southern Ocean is the plot where you can lose the race. Down there it’s all approximately survival. - Read
Source: sailingscuttlebutt.com